Kristi Noem says "Alligator Alcatraz" to be model for ICE state-run detention centers

Source: CBS News/Boston

Updated on: August 4, 2025 / 1:04 PM EDT


Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says "Alligator Alcatraz" will serve as a model for state-run migrant detention centers, and she told CBS News in an interview that she hopes to launch a handful of similar detention centers in multiple airports and jails across the country, in the coming months. Potential sites are already under consideration in Arizona, Nebraska and Louisiana.

"The locations we're looking at are right by airport runways that will help give us an efficiency that we've never had before," Noem said, adding that she's appealed directly to governors and state leaders nationwide to gauge their interest in contributing to the Trump administration's program to detain and deport more unauthorized migrants.

"Most of them are interested," Noem said, adding that in states that support President Trump's mission of securing the southern border, "many of them have facilities that may be empty or underutilized."

The Department of Homeland Security strategy builds on the opening of a 3,000-bed immigration detention center at a jetport in South Florida last month. Dubbed Alligator Alcatraz by state and federal officials, the makeshift facility will cost an estimated $450 million to operate in its first year. Up and running in just 8 days, the tents and trailers at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport are surrounded by 39 square miles of isolated swampland, boasting treacherous terrain and wildlife.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alligator-alcatraz-model-kristi-noem-homeland-security/